Outblaze Social Networking Service to Enhance Online Community for Rock Bands and Music Lovers
ISPCON Spring 2008

Outblaze, the world’s largest online service platform providing white label email, collaboration, security and social media services, today announced it will provide a full suite of social media services to Rock.com, the fastest growing Rock music site with 400,000 monthly unique visitors worldwide. Outblaze, which currently provides hosted email for Rock.com, will enhance the Official Site of Rock Music® with a social networking offering created to appeal to rock bands and music fans.

With Outblaze social networking services, Rock.com users will be able to create personal profiles where they can share photos and other files, create and edit videos, set up and post to blogs and participate in discussions. Individuals will be able to meet new friends and find dates who share a similar passion for rock music. Another feature will allow bands to create their own web sites where they can promote and sell their music, store video and audio files, feature live performances and send blast emails to their fans.

“Our goal is to create an online community for people who are passionate about music. Since we started outsourcing our email to Outblaze, our user base has doubled and we believe these new features will attract an even larger loyal following. Given our success with Outblaze email, it made perfect sense to continue using their resources to expand our services, rather than trying to do it in-house,” said Steve Newman, Chief Executive Officer of Rock.com

“We collaborated with Outblaze to build a social networking service that meets the specific needs of our user base. Bands will be able to promote and sell their music and fans can connect with musicians and other music devotees that share their tastes and interests. Outblaze allows us to go to market faster with a product that will significantly enrich the user experience,” explained Newman.

With Outblaze social networking services, any business can offer its user base a fully branded social media product without the expense and time normally required to run such a product in-house. Outblaze works closely with clients to build a tailored product finely tuned to meet the specific needs of each client’s users.

Outblaze Social Networking Services can be easily integrated with other Outblaze communication tools to create a one-stop communications portal. Businesses can add a multitude of communications services to their social media product including email with virus and spam protection, chat, calendars and games, all delivered to users in one seamless branded interface.

“Social networking is an established and important communication tool in the Web 2.0 era, not only for teenagers and Internet enthusiasts, but for professionals seeking employment and businesses looking to create an online community of like-minded users. Offering an integrated social networking service enhances the value of our entire product suite,” said Stef Bensi, Managing Director for Outblaze Americas and EMEA.

“There is certainly a lot of competition in this space and launching another generic social networking site will not turn heads. This is why we partner with clients to create something unique that appeals to a specific user base. We worked with Rock.com to understand what makes their community different, and customized a social networking solution to deliver a one-of-a-kind compelling environment where people will want to hang out, learn about music, and meet people who share their love for particular artists,” added Bensi.

About Outblaze

Outblaze operates the world’s largest online service platform providing white label email, collaboration and social media services to service providers, telecoms operators, corporations, academia, media and publishing companies and portals. The company services 76 million users across 480,000 domains. The Outblaze suite of services also includes online scheduling, file sharing, and protection against spam, viruses and phishing. Outblaze is reliable, affordable and fully customizable and helps clients make these services a profitable part of their business. Founded in 1998, Outblaze is privately held with offices in the USA, the UK and Hong Kong. For more information, visit www.outblaze.com.

About Rock.com

Rock.com is the Official Site of Rock Music® and serves the world’s music community. At Rock.com, users enjoy internet radio, live concert webcasts, and music videos. Users can also post profiles and meet other members with similar musical interests and receive a free 1 GB Rock.com E-Mail account. The Rock.com shopping experience includes T-shirts, Hats, Rock apparel, CDs, Concert Tickets and more. Rock.com receives approximately 400,000 monthly unique visitors worldwide.

Contacts

Outblaze
Holly Lehr-Hahn, 917-696-037
holly {at} outblaze(.)com